Author Topic: Colourants - Unusual Sources?  (Read 7101 times)

Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« on: January 04, 2013, 09:01:37 PM »
Apart from using Annoto, what have you used to dye your cheese.

I know Tiarella has used onion skins and beetroot with interesting results.

I have used grated turmeric root which gave a pleasing yellow colour - it is the one on the left.
Also in the group is a waxed Jarlsberg to the right and camembert at the bottom.


-Bill
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Tomer1

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2013, 01:28:18 PM »
fresh tumeric accually has some aroma and flavor which can alter the flavor of your milk\cheese. so... its not just a colorant (curcumin) spice as some people tend to think, given that they likely know the beyond expiried powdered tumeric sold in shops not the fresh stuff.

FictionalCheese

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2013, 06:39:56 PM »
I haven't done any coloring yet, but I am curious what type of cheese you colored with Turmeric. You probably haven't used enough to notice the taste, but I'm curious if there's a cheese that couldn't be complimented and colored by turmeric.

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2013, 06:55:51 PM »
Merlot wine.
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Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2013, 07:24:34 PM »
fresh tumeric accually has some aroma and flavor which can alter the flavor of your milk\cheese. so... its not just a colorant (curcumin) spice as some people tend to think, given that they likely know the beyond expiried powdered tumeric sold in shops not the fresh stuff.

I haven't done any coloring yet, but I am curious what type of cheese you colored with Turmeric. You probably haven't used enough to notice the taste, but I'm curious if there's a cheese that couldn't be complimented and colored by turmeric.

It was a very small piece of fresh turmeric which is a lot milder flavour than the dried spice. This is in a cheddar so I am looking forward to seeing if it has added any flavour. The downside is it won't really be ready till about August.   :(
-Bill
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Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2013, 07:27:31 PM »
Merlot wine.

I do like the subtle look of the Merlot.
-Bill
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Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2013, 07:39:38 PM »
The taste was very subtle as well. :)
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bbracken677

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2013, 02:22:28 AM »
Merlot wine.

How did you get the merlot throughout the cheese like that?

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2013, 03:38:18 AM »
Okay.....mostly for color I've used two sources; onion skins and beet juice/water from cooking.   The onion skins are boils for quite a while and then strained and salt added to create a brine of the desired salinity.  The beet juice has just been from cooking beets.  I've tried combining the two to create a peachy tone but haven't perfected that yet.  I'll show some cheesecloth scraps that I dipped into different mixes of the two colors. 

I'll also show a washed curd that had beet juice added to the curd and that colored the outer edge of every curd.  (like in Al's Merlot marbling) and then I took that cheese and brined it in an onion skin brine for a lovely yellow impact.  I later did a beet juice morge wash on this and it's turned it's own peach color.  I'll show 3 photos of that at different stages.  Cut open this cheese should be spectacular to look at and I hope it tastes as good.

Then there's the washed rind I did that soaked in an onion skin brine.  that was a lovely golden color and remained golden although some of the color came out of the b linens that showed up happily after a few weeks of PC that got brushed down over and over. 

Then there's the Tellagio I brined in beet colored brine.  That hasn't remained rose colored because I had some other issues with it's aging, wild blues kept trying to colonize it and I kept washing them off and lost the color finally. 

I'm brining a Tomme in a faintly pink brine tonight. not enough color to make a different I think.

Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2013, 04:48:06 AM »
You have achieved some amazing colours with only simple ingredients.
They are all very nice.
-Bill
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Offline Tiarella

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2013, 01:25:44 PM »
Thanks, Schnecken.  I hope others will try and share their results.  One interesting thing I noticed in the Desert Sunset washed rind style batch.  it made 2 rounds and only one brined in the onion skin colored brine.  can't remember if the other was dry salted or in plain brine but it did not develop the PC growth that the other did.  It was rather fun to brush the PC  down and restore the golden color every few days and then after a while it didn't come back and then the B linens came along with the golden and peachy colors.  My conclusion is that the onion skin colored brine impacted the surface pH enough to encourage early PC settlement.

A lot needs adjustments in dry wood heating winter air here.  Rinds are behaving in different ways despite being in mini-cave boxes which I would think would create and preserve some humidity.  My latest leaf adorned Caerphilly (honey smeared and then leaves applied) has had the usual bouts of wild blues that need to be washed off but it suddenly dried off drastically to a hard parchmentment feeling texture....or almost like canvas.  I've addressed it by doing another honey smear to rehydrate the rind.  Last adorned Caerphilly got some olive oil applications along the way so I'm holding that possibility as a response to over-drying also.  The leaf adorned hard cheeses are a lot of careful rind work to dab at the wild molds in between the leaves since I can't just brush them back without destroying the leaf adornment.  I still think it's worth it given how beautifully they turn out.
It doesn't take that much time and if I had three to do it would become more efficient a process.

keju

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Re: Colourants - Unusual Sources?
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2019, 07:15:58 AM »
I added red food coloring to a cheese last night. It looks terrible but tastes fine LOL.